The ACBL Board passed sweeping changes to the Grand National Teams and North American Pairs grassroots events, leveraging much feedback from multiple groups including the Competitions and Conventions Committee, Advisory Council, and the Bridge Committee. We first reported the NAP 4th flight proposals back in November, but what we didn’t expect was a slew of other changes and tweaks.
New Flights for NAP / GNT
There will now be four flights in both NAP and GNT.
Championship Flight: No Masterpoint restriction, Open+ chart
Flight A: 0-6000 Masterpoints, Open Chart
Flight B: 0-3000 Masterpoints, Basic+ Chart
Flight C: 0-750 Masterpoints, Basic+ Chart
Timing of Change – GNT 2025, NAP 2026
Probably the most unfortunate aspect: the changes start in different years. For GNTs, the change starts this season, meaning the most immediate upcoming season. Most District Finals occur in winter 2025 and then the NABC is summer 2025. For NAP, we start NEXT year, with club qualifier starting 2025, District finals in the fall, and NABC in Spring 2026.
So we get one more year of the old NAP, but immediately start the new GNTs. That makes for one confusing transition year. It was simply too late to change the conditions in time for NAP, which already began club qualifiers in June and had national conditions already posted months prior.
Life Master Welcome in Flight C
Flight C for many years did not allow Life Masters. After much discussion and points from all sides, the decision stands to raise Flight C to the same level as the gold rush, which allows all players with 0-750 Masterpoints, whether or not they are a Life Master.
To be honest, the old Non Life Master restriction was primarily for marketing purposes. There seems to be very little difference in the strength of a random player with 700 Masterpoints who is or is not a Life Master, and to further complicate matters, some people got it under the grandfathered 300 cutoff as opposed to the 500 minimum. But teachers and club managers loved being able to market event that is specifically for newer players who are not yet Life Masters.
On the other hand, it was a logistical hassle for GNT Coordinators and ACBL Directors who need to explain what NLM under 500 or NLM under 750 means on every flyer and piece of marketing. Ultimately, matching the Gold Rush seemed the best compromise.
Interesting question for the Masterpoints Committee: Does Flight C pay full gold now that the limit is 0-750 instead of 0-500, instead of the half gold half red?
The New “Mid-Flight” Will be 0-3000, Still Basic+
There was an inflation adjustment of Flight B from 0-2500 to 0-3000, smaller than the originally proposed 0-3500. And while 500 points doesn’t seem huge, it has the very big impact of keeping Flight B using the Basic+ Chart. That means no systems that open 1C with ambiguous shapes and ranges, no opening 1D when you might not have any diamonds, and no systems that heavily use transfer responses or artificial responses without a game force.
The idea is by next summer, ALL related mid-flight events will match GNT Flight B and rise to 3000. That includes the popular Young Pairs (aka Micro LM Pairs), the Micro Spingold, and the Red Ribbon Pairs. It also means for Spring 2026 NABCs, not only will NAP Flight B be 0-3000, but so will the four days prior (0-2500 Pairs and 0-2500 Swiss upgraded to 0-3000).
